Posted on 06/18/2007 9:20:25 PM PDT by gpapa
Many people seem to think that if the Iraq war was a mistake, it follows that we should undo the mistake and withdraw our forces--a questionable syllogism at best. Meanwhile, popular sentiment against the war has been so strong that Congress has been following, rather than leading, public opinion.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Korea makes a better comparison. It took four or five years to bring the South Korean forces up to the point where they could hold the line. We were of course able to start drawing down after the Armistice. That was three years after the war started. But the lesson is that you don’t just pick up and leave and besides, we were close by in Japan.
I don’t see why we don’t just dismember Iraq. The British, at the stroke of a pen, created it out of nothing, so what’d be so wrong in reversing it?
Give the Kurds a homeland... and tell Turkey to use it as a dumping ground for their restive Kurds.
(IE - you don’t like Turkey? Here’s a one-way ticket to your Kurdistan paradise)
The Kurds will need our help and as they tend to like the US, not to mention the probable gratitude from getting their own independent nation, would ask us to set up permanent US bases.
And with permanent US bases in a proposed Kurdistan, Turkey would be much more reluctant to mess around in the area. Plus, independence would tend to take a lot of wind out of the PKK’s sails, as they are ‘fighting’ for an independent Kurdistan... which would already exist.
Then hack off the southern portion and see if Kuwait would like it. Iraq justified the first Iraq war by stating that Kuwait was the renegade 13th province... so, at least in the eyes of the Iraqi’s, there is a sense of kinship. And most likely, the Iraqis in the south would exhibit the most kinship.
And while that may not sound like too much of a good deal for the Kuwaiti’s... there is the matter of the large oil fields around that area, which the Kuwaiti’s would become the sole owners.
A nice financial incentive to take the land.
Which would lead to another pro-US country in the region.
This leaves Baghdad and central Iraq as a basket case, true enough. But without any oil revenue and surrounded by hostile states, it’s not going to be able to do much. At best, it’d probably conduct terrorist operations into Kurdistan, Kuwait, or Iran (which, being Shiite, is the enemy of Sunni’s).
But then, this would give us a success in 2/3rd’s of Iraq.
And unlike a Palesimian, I’ll take 2/3rds a loaf rather than get nothing.
(Palesimians will always demand everything under the sun and not compromise. Which always leads to a collapse in negotiations. IE - They never see that half a loaf is better than none.)
Not to mention that we could stay in the central region, which we could name ‘Stupid-Sunni-land’ and use our 155,000 troops to police the area.
An area that is now 1/3 the size of what we used to patrol.
That alone should go a long way in increasing our effectiveness.
Korea isn’t a good comparison.
While we stayed in Korea... it was because South Korea was too weak to defend itself against North Korea, a separate nation.
It was, however, strong enough to quell domestic dissent.
We’re staying in Iraq mainly because the Iraqi’s are not able to quell their internal dissent. Not because the Iraqi’s are too weak to defend against an invasion from Iran.
BTW: We never left Korea, as we are still there today. I’m posting this from the Yongsan Army Garrison in Seoul, for pete’s sake!
What I am talking about is Korea in the’50s, when we were handing over to ROK. We were fortunate that the commander of 8th Army was not only a superb combat commander but a genius at training foreign troops. Before he came to Korea, he had revamped the Greek Army to enable it to stand up against Communist rebels and—unofficially —was in charge of operations. That’s why the Koreans have a statute of him. He was to their army as Von Steuben was to ours. Boy could we use him now.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.